Pulping, liquors from neutral semichemical

Liquors from Neutral Semichemical Pulping and from Kraft Pulping. In making neutral sulfite semichemical pulp, the black liquors may have about 10 parts of water to 1 part of total solids, of which about one-third is sodium acetate and sodium formate. After evaporation to about 1 part solids to 1 part water, sulfuric acid is added to the concentrate to free the acetic and formic acids. When the concentrate is extracted with acetone, the mixed acids are obtained, the acetone is separated for recycle, and the acids are concentrated and refined. The raffinate is stripped and is passed to the usual furnace to be burned for recovery of the inorganic salt values. This process gives a smelt of sodium sulfate, which may be used in the kraft process as chemical makeup. The loss of the fuel value of the acetic and formic acids is practically negligible. 

Wood chips are processed in mild chemical liquor and subjected to mechanical refining using disc refiners. Semichemical pulping liquors have variable composition ranging from sodium hydroxide alone, alkaline sulfite (sodium sulfite - - sodium carbonate), mixtures of sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate, to Kraft green or white liquors [3]. Sodium sulfite/ sodium carbonate liquor is most commonly used and the pulp product obtained thereafter is referred to as neutral sulfite semichemical (NSSC) pulp. 

There are several modifications of the sulfite method which are designated according to the pH of the cooking liquor (Table 7-1). For the production of chemical pulps, delignification is allowed to proceed until most of the lignin in the middle lamella is removed after which the fibers can be readily separated from each other. Semichemical pulps are often produced by the neutral sodium sulfite method followed by mechanical fiberization of the partially delignified wood. 

The production of wood pulp from lignocellulosic materials by treatment with various chemical liquors, particularly the neutral sulfite semichemical process and the kraft or sulfate process, gives residual black liquors. These contain salts that carry acetic acid and formic acid equivalent to 5% or more of the dry weight of the wood. 

The effect of various operating conditions on the recovery of the pulping chemicals and heat values in the case of a neutral sulfite semichemical (NSSC) spent liquor has been described recently (I). The thermodynamic equilibria and kinetics of gasification which seem to apply to this same set of experiments were discussed elsewhere (9). Gas compositions and yields examined in the latter study showed that under some of the operating conditions investigated, commercially significant quantities of ammonia and methanol synthesis gases could be produced from NSSC-type spent liquors. 

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